Digital concierge application

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the invention are directed to methods, systems, and apparatuses for providing digital concierge services through a portable electronic device. The digital concierge may be provided through an application installed on a portable electronic device that is configured to contact a concierge service, provide filtered and relevant offers including promotions and accountholder benefits, and provide ATM location services for users as they travel. One embodiment of the present invention is directed to a method comprising determining a location of a portable electronic device, receiving concierge data associated with the user, filtering, by a processor, a plurality of offers according to the location of the portable electronic device and the concierge data associated with the user, and presenting filtered offers to a user. Some embodiments may further filter the plurality of offers according to an issuer associated with the user of the portable electronic device.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/581,980, filed Dec. 30, 2011, which is herein incorporated byreference in its entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

The use of concierge services by business and vacation travelers hasincreased as people have become busier and consumer options for travelarrangements have become more complicated and expansive. Accordingly,some issuers and payment processing networks provide concierge servicesto their account holders as a value add service. Travelers may use theconcierge services to plan dinners, lodging, and entertainment that theymay experience while they are in a new city or region. Additionally,some issuers and payment processing networks provide specific products(e.g., special cards, accounts, etc.) focused on the needs and desiresof business travelers. For example, an issuer may provide a travel cardthat provides particular travel oriented deal, discounts, or benefits,in order to attract business travelers or vacationers to sign up forthat account or card product.

Typically, a concierge service may have special arrangements withmerchants and service providers which allow them to provide specialdiscounts and promotions to traveling members that are arranging theirtravel through the concierge service. However, it may be difficult for aconcierge to inform a user of all of the special promotions anddiscounts that may be available to a user. Accordingly, there may be aneed for an easy and efficient manner for a user to review the currentpromotions and coupons that are available for a particular geographicarea through the concierge service.

Additionally, in the past there have been limited ways for a traveler toeasily and quickly receive the services provided by a concierge whiletraveling. Furthermore, it may be difficult to find the correctconcierge to contact for a given situation as a traveler may contact oneconcierge to book travel in one country, and a different concierge orcustomer service representative to address a problem while in anothercountry. Furthermore, the user may be out of contact with a conciergeservice during a flight or if there is limited connection to acommunications network while traveling in remote areas. Accordingly,travelers may not be able to plan their future activities or get accessto their travel information while traveling.

Smartphones and other portable electronic device have grown inpopularity and use in recent years. Additionally, communicationsnetworks have expanded rapidly and the portable electronic devices mayhave access to a number of different communications networks (e.g., theInternet, cellular communications networks, etc.) throughout the world.As consumers travel to new countries, regions, and cities, they bringtheir portable electronic devices with them and use these devices aroundthe world.

Accordingly, there is a need for an application or module that mayoperate on a portable electronic device and provide information to auser while they are traveling and allow quick and easy access to aconcierge service, promotions, accountholder benefit information, andATM location information no matter where the user is located in theworld. Additionally, there is a need for users to have better access tolocal and specialized deals that are relevant to the consumer's currenttravel, spending habits, and issuer products, as they travel.

Embodiments of the present invention address these problems and otherproblems individually and collectively.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present application is generally related to delivering services,promotions, and information to cardholders using portable electronicdevices. Specifically, embodiments of the present application aredirected at a digital concierge application that may operate on aportable electronic device that provides location-based conciergeservices, information regarding accountholder or cardholder benefits,location and account-based promotions, and an ATM locator service to acardholder (i.e., user). Accordingly, the digital concierge applicationmay provide a traveling concierge service where a user's portableelectronic device may become a digital concierge where a user may plantheir activities, find and redeem local promotions, receive and redeemaccountholder benefits, find relevant ATM locations near them, and haveaccess to important account information, all while traveling using asingle device.

One embodiment of the present invention is directed to a methodcomprising determining a location of a portable electronic device,receiving concierge data associated with the user, filtering, by aprocessor, a plurality of offers according to the location of theportable electronic device and the concierge data associated with theuser, and presenting filtered offers to a user. Some embodiments mayfurther filter the plurality of offers according to an issuer associatedwith the user of the portable electronic device.

Another embodiment of the present invention is directed to a portableelectronic device comprising a processor and a non-transitory computerreadable medium comprising computer code for performing a method. Themethod comprising determining a location of a portable electronicdevice, receiving concierge data associated with the user, filtering aplurality of offers according to the location of the portable electronicdevice and the concierge data associated with the user, and presentingfiltered offers to a user.

These and other embodiments of the invention are described in furtherdetail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary block diagram of a system according to oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a process flow chart of the registration process for a useraccording to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows a process flow chart of an exemplary method of providingrelevant promotional offers by a promotions service module according toone embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interfaceassociated with a main menu of a digital concierge application on aportable electronic device, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 5A-5B show exemplary embodiments of a graphical user interfaceassociated with a concierge module on a portable electronic deviceaccording to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary embodiment of a graphical user interfaceassociated with a plurality of offers provided by a promotions servicemodule on a portable electronic device according to one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIGS. 7A-7B show exemplary embodiments of a graphical user interfaceassociated with a promotions service module on a portable electronicdevice according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 8A-8B show exemplary embodiments of a graphical user interfaceassociated with an accountholder benefits service module on a portableelectronic device according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 9A-9B show exemplary embodiments of a graphical user interfaceassociated with an ATM locator module on a portable electronic deviceaccording to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 shows a high level block diagram of a computer system that maybe used to implement a server or routing system according to anembodiment of the technology.

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram illustrating the primarycomponents of a portable electronic device, such as a mobile phone, thatmay be used as part of the inventive system and method, in accordancewith some embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems and methods offacilitating the automatic delivery of products, information, andservices direct to a consumer's portable electronic device. Embodimentsof the invention may provide easy and secure access to location andissuer filtered offers and promotions, concierge servicerepresentatives, product or benefit information, customer service, andATM locations. The application may provide one-click or one-touch accessto location filtered promotions, products, and services to a user, basedon that user's personal registration details provided during an initialregistration with the service. Additionally, embodiments of theinvention may update the promotions by location of the portableelectronic device to provide the most pertinent promotions to the user.Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may also filter promotions oroffers by the issuer of the card or product, as well as by conciergedata generated in response to interactions with a conciergerepresentative or system. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention mayenable financial institutions, issuers, and/or payment processingservices to target products, information, and services direct to theirusers using a concierge module, promotions module, account holderbenefit module, and an ATM locator module. These modules may be providedthrough an application installed on a portable electronic device and mayprovide a number of services and functionality as may be described infurther detail below. The information associated with these modules canbe automatically updated and cached (i.e., stored) on the portableelectronic device so that it is available even if the electronic devicedoes not have a data or cellular network connection to a communicationsnetwork.

As explained above, the digital concierge application may comprise aplurality of modules including a concierge module, a promotions module,an accountholder benefits module, and an ATM locator module. Theconcierge module may provide connections to a local concierge servicerepresentative including one-click calling, emailing, and interactingthrough chat or SMS texting services. Additionally, in some embodiments,the concierge module may allow for the booking of travel or otherconcierge duties without the interaction with a human concierge. Thepromotions module may provide links to promotions with informationprovided from the service provider (e.g., merchant, issuer, paymentprocessing service, etc.) related to the promotion. The account orcardholder benefits module may provide a quick guide to cardenhancements (e.g., insurance, assistance, etc.) or other accountrelated information including quick access (one-click calling, emailing,or texting) to a customer service representative. Finally, the ATMlocator module may provide the ability to search for the nearest ATMquickly and easily and may provide a map with directions to find aselected ATM.

One of the many advantages provided by the system is the quick and easyaccess to the offers, promotions, benefits, and services provided byfinancial institutions (e.g., issuers, banks, and payment processingnetworks). Grouping the individual functions described above throughmodules on a single application in a portable electronic device providesfurther advantages than each feature provides individually. Asynergistic effect results from the interaction of the features providedby the modules such that the modules combined into a single device canprovide further advantages for the users and service providers than theycould individually.

For example, location based and issuer specific offers can be providedbased on an itinerary that is provided to a concierge through theapplication's email concierge feature. For instance, if a cardholder'sitinerary (that may have been booked through the application using theconcierge module) suggests that the user may be traveling to Boston,then promotions or suggestions for discounted services or goods (issuerand/or geographically based) in the suggested location can be providedto the user. Additionally, the application may suggest accountholder orcardholder benefits that may be useful for the trip (e.g., baggage lossinsurance). The entire process can be coordinated through theapplication which provides an easier and more efficient method for auser to keep track of offers and be informed as to what offers areavailable in a location they may not be familiar with. This may lead tomore offers being accepted by users, leading to more customer loyaltywith the issuer or payment processor system. Additionally, issuers orpayment processors may develop relationships with select merchants intravel destinations such that merchants may incentivize travelers tovisit their stores or services while traveling. Accordingly, the offersmay be used to advertise the presence, goods, and services provided by aparticular merchant or service provider.

Furthermore, all the data related to the offers including promotions andcardholder (or accountholder) benefits may be stored and easilyaccessible on the portable electronic device for easy referencing.Additionally, in some embodiments, the issuer specific and locationspecific offers can be presented to a user no matter where they travelwithout the user having to communicate with a live conciergerepresentative. Some embodiments may allow users to redeem offers(either promotions or account benefits), schedule services (e.g.,flights, hotels, etc.), buy tickets, create dinner reservations, or anyother activities that a concierge representative may complete, using thedigital concierge application. Accordingly, the application may provideservices much like a digital concierge service by providing the servicesof a typical concierge through a single application without requiringthe interaction of a human being.

Embodiments of the invention provide the technical advantages ofproviding information to users even when there is no connection to thesource of the information and limiting unnecessary data transfer. Theapplication continually updates information related to promotions andoffers, local concierge contacts, and other information important to auser and stores the data so that the data can be accessed whether or notthe user's portable electronic device has a data connection. Forexample, when a user is traveling and the concierge has notice of thetravel (through access to an itinerary, by booking the travel throughthe concierge, or by use of the global positioning service (GPS)location of the portable electronic device) the user can have localpromotions and offers updated on their phone prior to traveling on theplane so that the user can review the information even though the usermay not have cellular or data connection.

Furthermore, the account or cardholder benefits that may apply to theregistered account can be present for reference by the user at any timewithout the need for a cellular or data connection. Therefore, nocontinual connection is required to receive information from the issuerand/or local service providers (or merchants) of services or goods.Accordingly, the application provides the additional benefit of notrequiring an update of the information every time the user wishes toview the information. Alternatively, the user can opt for theinformation to only be updated when they manually agree to the update.Furthermore, if no promotions or benefits information has updated on theapplication management server (such as the GPS information for theportable electronic device is from the same city or state as previouslyupdated and there are no new offers available in that area) then thereis no need to update the offer information on the portable electronicdevice as it is already stored. This can limit unnecessary transmissionsof data between the servers and portable electronic device.

Embodiments of the invention may be implemented in the form of anapplication programmed for the operating systems of many differentportable electronic devices. The application may be available in manydifferent languages with an initial language setting based on thelanguage primarily spoken in the country or region in which theapplication is originally downloaded. The user may be provided theoption to change the language settings in the application settings menu.The application may also be co-branded such that an account issuer mayinclude their brand on the application along with the payment processingservice or other banking entity involved with providing the card. A logoor logos of one or both of the co-branded companies may appear on thehome screen as well as the other screens of the application.Furthermore, there could be optional cardholder benefits provided forparticular products or issuers as well as that issuers personalizedcontact information and offers.

Embodiments of the invention may focus on affluent or wealthycardholders. The application may focus on affluent cardholders becausethey are the cardholders that most regularly use the promotions,cardholder benefits, and concierge services provided by the application.Affluent cardholders may also travel more and have bigger budgets tospend while traveling. Furthermore, affluent cardholders may need theadditional concierge and offer support while traveling. However, theembodiments of the invention could be tailored to any income level andare not limited to affluent cardholders. Therefore, the applicationcould be used with any card product level (the numbers of dollars spentevery year may determine the product offered to the user).

Prior to discussing exemplary embodiments of the invention, a furtherdescription of some terms can be provided for a better understanding ofthe invention.

A “portable electronic device” may include any electronic device thatmay be transported and operated by a user. In some embodiments theportable electronic device may also provide remote communicationcapabilities to a network. Examples of remote communication capabilitiesinclude using a mobile phone (wireless) network, wireless data network(e.g., 3G, 4G or similar networks), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, or any othercommunication medium that may provide access to a network such as theInternet or a private network. Examples of portable electronic devicesinclude mobile phones (e.g., cellular phones), PDAs, tablet computers,net books, laptop computers, personal music players, hand-heldspecialized readers, etc. A portable electronic device may comprise anysuitable hardware and software for performing such functions, and mayalso include multiple devices or components (e.g., when a device hasremote access to a network by tethering to another device—i.e., usingthe other device as a modem—both devices taken together may beconsidered a single portable electronic device). A portable electronicdevice may also comprise a verification token in the form of, forinstance, a secured hardware or software component within the portableelectronic device and/or one or more external components that may becoupled to the portable electronic device. A detailed description of anexemplary portable electronic device is provided below.

As used herein, “concierge data” may include any information associatedwith a concierge. For example, concierge data may be any informationthat is generated as a result of a user contacting a concierge. Forinstance, concierge data may include a travel itinerary, servicerequest, service response, reservation information associated with adinner or hotel stay, etc. Additionally, concierge data may beassociated with a user such that the itinerary is related to the user'stravel. For example, if a user contacts a concierge servicerepresentative (using the digital concierge application or not) andplans a trip including hotel and travel arrangements using theconcierge, the concierge may send the user an itinerary includinginformation related to the user's hotel and travel arrangements. Thehotel and travel arrangements may be separate, such that the conciergedata includes two separate communications from the concierge service orconcierge service representative or all of the information may beincluded in a single communication.

Furthermore, the concierge data may include a small amount ofinformation (e.g., a code related to a particular location and time fortravel) or a large amount of information (e.g., a full itineraryincluding addresses, contact information, and details regarding everyfacet of the trip). For example, in some embodiments, the digitalconcierge application may receive a full itinerary from a conciergeservice computer (i.e., terminal) including information related to when,where, and what restaurants, hotels, or businesses the user is scheduledto eat, sleep, and/or visit during their trip. The itinerary may beinterpreted by the digital concierge application to identify when andwhere the user may be located at any given time, so that offers may befiltered accordingly. As such, the concierge data may impact therelevance scoring of offers during a filtering process as will bediscussed in further detail below. Any suitable manner of interpretingthe data may be implemented (e.g., the concierge module may mapitinerary on a timeline and pre-program the offer filtering according tothe timeline, or through any alternative method).

Additionally, the concierge data may include information related to aproblem, a service request by a user, or a service report from theconcierge. For example, if a user contacts a concierge servicerepresentative to report their baggage is missing or other problemsrelated to their travel, the concierge representative may generate aservice report and send the service report to the portable electronicdevice. The service report may include information related to theproblem including contact information for redeeming a prior receivedbenefit related to the service issue. Accordingly, the offer managementmodule may use the concierge data including the service request orreport to help filter relevant cardholder or accountholder benefits tothe user related to the service problem or other service problems thatmay be encountered by users in similar situations.

Alternatively, the concierge data may be as simple as an indicator ofwhat region, city, or state the user may be visiting, the date or timeof the trip, and/or the duration of the trip. For example, in someembodiments, the concierge data may include a region indicator for eachcountry, region, state, and/or city that the application may use tofilter offers including promotions and account or cardholder benefits.For instance, if the user uses a concierge to plan a trip to New YorkCity, N.Y., in one week, the concierge service representative may sendconcierge data including a country indicator (e.g., country code 001), aregion indicator (e.g., region code 01 for that country), a cityindicator (e.g., city code 01 in that region), a departure indicator ina number of days until the user departs (e.g., 07), and a durationindicator in a number of days the user may be present (e.g., 04). Assuch, the concierge data could include a code as simple as“00101010704,” related to the location and time that a user will bepresent in a location.

Similarly, in embodiments of the present invention where a presentconnection to a cellular communication network exists, the currentgeographic location may be determined by identifying a Mobile NetworkCode (MNC) and Mobile Country Code (MCC) for the portable electronicdevice. A MNC is an indicator for the mobile network operator and a MCCis an indicator for the mobile country. Accordingly, location may bedetermined using a mobile country code to narrow the user's location toa country and a MNC to limit to a particular mobile network operator.Additionally, in some embodiments, offer data may be organized accordingto MCC and MNC so that only those offers in a particular country may beprovided to a portable electronic device. Furthermore, the MNC and MCCmay be used for any of the modules and is not limited to offers relatedservices. Accordingly, the MNC could be used when determining a localconcierge service or in finding ATM locations.

However, codes do not have to be used in embodiments of the presentinvention, for example, the application may simply use the location ofthe portable electronic device to indicate when the user may be leavingthe area. Accordingly, the application may use concierge data todetermine a destination city or region when the location data associatedwith the portable electronic device indicates that the user is leavingthe area. Any other suitable method of determining when, where, and howlong a user is traveling may be implemented. For example, the conciergedata may be used to generate a calendar that the application uses todetermine what location to use in filtering offers for at a particulartime.

In some embodiments, “concierge service contact information” may includeany information for contacting a concierge service. For example, theconcierge service contact information may include a phone number, emailaddress, live chat connection address and relevant applicationprogramming interfaces (APIs), or server computer address in order tocontact a concierge service. The concierge service contact informationmay be determined through any suitable means. In some embodiments, theconcierge service contact may be determined using the location of theportable electronic device. For example, depending on the location ofthe portable electronic device, the correct concierge service providermay change.

It may be beneficial to have a concierge that is familiar with the localarea when a user is contacting them. Accordingly, the concierge servicecontact information may change depending on the location of the portableelectronic device. Additionally, the concierge contact module of thedigital concierge application may comprise concierge service contactinformation for concierge services throughout the world. Alternatively,in some embodiments, the digital concierge module may contact theconcierge service and provide the location of the portable electronicdevice as well as the preferred method of contacting the concierge. Aconcierge service server computer may then respond with the appropriateconcierge service contact information, a live chat program that may beinstalled or operated on the portable electronic device, or a responsethat the concierge service cannot service the area. Any other suitablemethod for determining the correct concierge service providerinformation may be implemented. In embodiments of the present invention,the portable electronic device may present contact options to the userto connect to the concierge service and depending on the type of contactoption selected, may contact the concierge service using the selectedmethod.

An “offer” may include any information related to a service or product.For example, an offer may include media and non-media marketingcommunications employed for a pre-determined, limited time, orindefinitely to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand, orimprove product availability. In embodiments of the present invention,offers may include information related to promotions associated withmerchants or service providers, as well as cardholder or accountholderbenefits. Examples of offers include promotions, contests, coupons,premiums, prizes, discounts, rebates, and/or the like associated withone or more merchants or service providers, as well as informationrelated to cardholder or accountholder benefits that may already beprovided or are available to an accountholder. For instance, offers mayinclude a promotion providing a 10% discount on purchases made at adepartment store for a particular day. Alternatively, an offer mayinclude information regarding baggage loss insurance, flightcancellation insurance, or any other potential accountholder benefits orprograms that may be offered by an issuer, payment processing network,or service provider.

In some embodiments of the present invention, offers may be updatedperiodically, at the occurrence of a predetermined event, or at anyother suitable time. Any suitable method of updating offers on theportable electronic device may be implemented. For example, in oneembodiment, the application may send a request for updated offers to aserver computer in response to a predetermined event. The predeterminedevent may include any suitable activity related to the portableelectronic device or digital concierge application including, forexample, the launching of the application, powering on the portableelectronic device, or lapsing of a predetermined period of time sincethe last update.

An offer management module of the digital concierge application maymanage the update process of offers. The offer management module mayreceive the updated offers from an application management serveroperated by the application provider in response to a request, maycompare the updated offers to the offers already stored on the portableelectronic device, may update the plurality of stored offers with theupdated offers, and may store the updated plurality of offers on theportable electronic device. Any other suitable method of updating offersincluding promotions and accountholder benefits may be implemented.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the user may agree to, redeem, orotherwise accept an offer presented by the application using theapplication. For example, in some embodiments, the application may senda selected offer to an application management server computer, whereinthe server computer may redeem the offer for the user by communicatingwith a merchant associated with the selected offer.

In some embodiments, a user may also share an offer with friends,colleagues, family, or any other contacts through communication withvarious social network systems or by directly contacting the personthrough a communications network. Accordingly, embodiments of thepresent invention may be configured to send a selected offer and userinformation to a social media network server and the social medianetwork server may thereafter share the selected offer with other socialmedia network users associated with the user.

In some embodiments, “determining a location of a portable electronicdevice” may include any method of determining the geographic location ofa portable electronic device. Any suitable method may be implemented.For example, a location may be determined through the use of a globalpositioning system (GPS) receiver or GPS chip within the portableelectronic device that may indicate the latitude and longitude of theportable electronic device whenever the portable electronic device mayreceive a GPS communication signal from one or more satellites.Additionally, the application may determine the location bytriangulating the location of cellular network communication towers,through the reporting of a location by a monitoring system, monitoringthe signal strength and proximity to a cellular communications tower, orthrough any other suitable manner.

An “issuer” may include any entity that issues any account to a user.For example, the entity may include a financial institution that issuespayment accounts to users so that the user may complete a financialtransaction using the payment account. In some embodiments, an issuerassociated with a user of the portable electronic device may bedetermined by the application by the user entering an issuer identifierinto the application during a registration process. For example, a usermay be prompted to enter a bank identification number (BIN) into theapplication during registration. The application may send the issueridentifier information to an application management server duringregistration and a registration module on the application managementserver may match the issuer identifier to the particular issuer usingthe BIN. The registration module may then register that the applicationassociated with the portable electronic device may be provided withissuer specific offers including special promotions as well as specialbenefits provided exclusively to a particular issuer. Additionally,issuers may customize the benefits they provide depending on the productassociated with the account and as such, may limit the offers providedto the application based on the issuer identifier.

A “product” may include any account provided to a user. For example, aproduct may be provided by an issuer and may be used for payment duringtransactions. Furthermore, an issuer may provide a number of differentproducts (i.e., types of accounts) for different types of customers ordifferent levels of annual usage. For instance, an issuer may havebronze, silver, gold, and platinum products. Each product may bedifferent based on monthly or annual spending amounts, usage frequency(how often the account is used), loyalty (e.g., length of time they havebeen a customer), credit rating, income of the user, or any otherattribute associated with a user. Additionally, some issuers may focusparticular products on certain consumer behavior such as providing atravel product that has special promotional and accountholder benefitsgeared for travelers or users who travel often.

As used herein, “filtering” may include any action that organizesinformation to highlight or prioritize some information. Additionally,filtering may include de-emphasizing or hiding some other information.For example, filtering may include providing relevance points to someoffers such that those offers may be displayed to a user while otheroffers are not displayed. For example, offers may be filtered such thatthe offers are organized by relevance to a location of the portableelectronic device and concierge data. Additionally, in some embodiments,filtered offers that do not reach a particular relevance measure may bedeleted from the application, not stored by the application, or not sentto the portable electronic device. Accordingly, in some embodiments, aplurality of offers including promotions associated with a particularmerchant as well as accountholder benefits may be filtered according tothe location of the portable electronic device and concierge dataassociated with the user. Additionally, in some embodiments, the offersmay further be filtered according to an issuer associated with the userof the portable electronic device. Accordingly, those offers thatincluded information relevant to the location of the portable electronicdevice, were provided by the issuer, and were relevant to concierge dataassociated with the user would be displayed or provided first. Generic,global, or other offers that are not as relevant to the user, may thenbe after or later than the more relevant offers.

In some embodiments, each offer may be given a relevance score based onthe filtering criteria and may be organized from a high score to lowscore. For example, an offer for a merchant located in a city that auser is in the process of traveling to may have a high relevance scorewhile an offer that is in a different city may have a much lowerrelevance score. Accordingly, concierge data including a travelitinerary, reservations, or other travel related information may be usedin the relevance determination. Furthermore, benefits that are notprovided by an issuer associated with the user account may have a verylow relevance score or may be deleted from the offer data completely.Additionally, accountholder benefits related to concierge data includinga service request or response may be provided a high relevance scorewhile benefits unrelated to the service request or response may beincluded last in the benefit presentation.

I. Exemplary Systems

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary block diagram of a digital conciergeapplication system 100 according to embodiments of the presentinvention. As the block diagram shows, the digital concierge application111 may use the portable electronic device 110 to communicate with anumber of systems through a communications network 180. The entities mayinclude a concierge service terminal (i.e., computer) 170, varioussocial network server computers 160, and an application managementserver 141 located at a payment processing network 140. Although FIG. 1shows the various databases including issuer data 143, offer data 144,ATM data 145, and user profile data 146 as being provided by a paymentprocessing network 140, in some embodiments, the databases 143-146located at the payment processing network 140 may be implemented throughseparate entities and the digital concierge application 111 may beconfigured to communicate with additional entities outside of thoseshown in FIG. 1. For example, in some embodiments, the application maycommunicate with a separate application management server 141 forregistration of the application, a separate offers content managementsystem (CMS) provided by a third party, and a separate ATM informationprovider system. However, in the exemplary embodiment provided in FIG.1, the application management server 141 is located at the paymentprocessing network 140 and the payment processing network 140 managesall of the information the digital concierge application 111 may use.

Social network server computers 160 include servers (there could be oneor more) that may be operated by third parties that may provideapplication programming interface (API) languages to developers in orderfor programs to be developed to communicate with their servers. Numeroususers may have accounts with the social network services associated withthe social network server computers 160 and may share, organize, andotherwise communicate information to one another through the socialnetwork server computers 160.

A digital concierge application 111 may comprise any suitable softwarethat provides front end functionality of the digital conciergeapplication 111 to the user as described herein. For example, thedigital concierge application 111 may be embodied as a softwareapplication downloadable by a computer apparatus or portable electronicdevice 110 (e.g., a mobile phone). The digital concierge application 111may include a plurality of modules to provide the functionalitydescribed in the present disclosure. For example, the digital conciergeapplication may comprise a concierge contact module 113, an offermanagement module 114, an ATM location module 115, an issuer datadatabase 116, an offer data database 117, an ATM data database 118, anda concierge data database 119.

A registration module 112 may include any software or hardware moduleconfigured to register a digital concierge application 111 as beingassociated with a user and/or issuer account. The registration module112 may be configured or programmed to receive registration informationfrom a user, process the registration information by submitting theregistration information to an application management server 141 (forexample, using a secure API provided by the application managementserver 141), receiving a determination of the status of theregistration, and informing the user of the status. Additionally, theregistration module 112 may be programmed to receive the initial issuerdata 116, concierge service contact information (which may be stored aspart of the concierge data database 119), offer data 117, ATM data 118,and any other miscellaneous information necessary to activate and usethe digital concierge application 111.

A concierge contact module 113 may include any software or hardwaremodule configured or programmed to determine local concierge servicecontact information for the location of a portable electronic device 110and contact the concierge service 170. The concierge contact module 113may determine a plurality of different contact options or methods inwhich a concierge service representative 170 may be contacted includingemail, text messaging, a telephone call, live chat messaging, live videoconferencing, or any other suitable manner in which a user maycommunicate with a concierge service terminal, server, or conciergeservice representative 170. The concierge contact module 113 may presentany suitable contact options to the user to connect to the conciergeservice 170 and allow the user to select a preferred method ofcontacting the concierge 170. The concierge contact module 113 may thencontact the concierge without requiring the user to complete anyadditional steps (e.g., through a one-click or one-touch interface).Accordingly, users may contact a local concierge service representative170 using a one-touch process of selecting a method of contacting theconcierge.

An offer management module 114 may include any software or hardwaremodule configured or programmed to manage, update, filter, and presentoffers to a user operating the portable electronic device 110. In someembodiments, the offer management module 114 may include two separatefunctions or service modules, including a promotions service module(shown in FIGS. 6-7B) and an accountholder benefits service module(shown in FIGS. 8A-8B).

The promotions service module may filter and present promotional offersassociated with one or more merchants to a user while the accountholderbenefits service module may filter and present accountholder benefitoffers to a user. Both of these modules will be described in furtherdetail below. However, in some embodiments, both service modules mayoperate similarly in that the offer management module 114 may ensure theoffers are up to date, filtered according to their relevancy to the useraccording to location, issuer data, and/or concierge data, and allow theuser to redeem or share a selected offer. The offer management module114 may update offer data 117 and issuer data 116 stored on the portableelectronic device 110, and may request updated issuer data 143 and offerdata 144 from the application management server 141. The offermanagement module 114 may complete any further functionality related tooffer presentation, filtering, redemption, and sharing as may bedescribed herein. For example, the offer management module 114 mayreceive concierge data 119 from a concierge service terminal 170 and mayinterpret the concierge data 119 to determine if the user may betraveling to another geographic location in the future. This and otherfunctionality will be described in further detail below. Furthermore,any of the modules shown in the digital concierge application 111 may beimplemented in other server computers and the data may be passed to theportable electronic device, without requiring all of the processing tooccur at the digital concierge application 111.

An ATM location module 115 may include any software or hardware moduleconfigured or programmed to provide ATM location data to a user of theportable electronic device 110. The ATM location module 115 maydetermine the locations of any ATMs according to a number of criteriaincluding the proximity to a provided GPS location of the portableelectronic device 110, according to a search term or keyword provided bya user, ATMs owned by a particular issuer, or through any otherpotential criteria. The ATM location module 115 may be configured togenerate a request for information from a ATM location determinationmodule located at a third party (e.g., the payment processing network),or may perform a search on a stored ATM data database 118 that isdownloaded from an application management server 141 and located on theportable electronic device 110. The application management server 141may periodically update the ATM data 118 stored on the portableelectronic device 110 using source ATM data 145 or the applicationmanagement server 141 may send location results to the portableelectronic device 111 using the ATM data 145 after receiving an ATMlocation request from a digital concierge application 111.

FIG. 1 also shows an exemplary financial transaction system 100including a merchant computer 120, acquirer computer 130, paymentprocessing network 140, and issuer computer 150. The system may includeone or more of each of the above entities and may also incorporate aseparate application provider (not shown) that may provide the servicesthat are currently provided by the payment processing network 140 inFIG. 1.

The system 100 may include a merchant having a merchant computer 120that comprises an external communication interface (e.g., forcommunicating with an access device (not shown) and an acquirer computer130), system memory comprising one or modules to generate and utilizeelectronic messages, and a data processor (for facilitating a financialtransaction and the exchange of electronic messages); an acquirer havingan acquirer computer 130 that comprises an external communicationinterface (e.g., for communicating with a merchant computer 120 and apayment processing network 140), system memory comprising one or modulesto generate and utilize electronic messages, and a data processor (forfacilitating a financial transaction and the exchange of electronicmessages); and an issuer having an issuer computer 150 that comprises anexternal communication interface (e.g., for communicating with a paymentprocessing network 140), system memory comprising one or modules togenerate and utilize electronic messages, and a data processor (forfacilitating a financial transaction and the exchange of electronicmessages). The external communication interface of the merchant computer120 may be coupled to an access device (such that information may bereceived by the access device and communicated to the merchant computer120) or, in some embodiments, the access device may comprise a componentof the merchant computer 120.

The communication network 180 may comprise any suitable network ofhardware and software components configured to allow two electronicdevices to communicate by sending and receiving electronic signals.Examples of communication networks include a cellular phone network, theInternet, telephone wires, etc. The communication network may beconfigured to receive wired or wireless communications. As would beunderstood by one of ordinary skill in the art, any suitablecommunications protocol for storing, representing, and transmitting databetween components in the system may be used. Some examples of suchmethods may include utilizing predefined and static fields (such as incore TCP/IP protocols); “Field: Value” pairs (e.g., HTTP, FTP, SMTP,POP3, and SIP); an XML based format; and/or Tag-Length-Value format.

A concierge service terminal 170 may include any computer or otherelectronic device that may be associated with a concierge service orconcierge service representative. In some embodiments, the conciergeservice may be provided by a third party (as shown) or by the paymentprocessing network 140, issuer 150, or other entity involved in thedigital concierge system 100. A concierge service terminal 170 may beused by a concierge service representative during a conciergetransaction with a user. For example, the concierge service terminal 170may include a computer that a concierge service representative isoperating while completing requests from the user during a conciergeservice call or contact. After the concierge service representative hashelped a user or consumer with their request, the concierge servicerepresentative may generate concierge data including an itinerary,service response, service request, report, or any other informationrelated to the subject matter of the contact between the conciergeservice representative and the portable electronic device 110. Theconcierge service representative may then send the concierge data to theportable electronic device 110 through the communication network 180.The digital concierge application may store the concierge data in aconcierge data database 119 or otherwise store the information so thatthe digital concierge application 111 may use the concierge data 119.

The payment processing network 140 may include data processingsubsystems, networks, and operations used to support and deliverauthorization services, exception file services, and clearing andsettlement services. For example, the payment processing network maycomprise a server computer, coupled to a network interface (e.g. by anexternal communication interface), and a database(s) of information. Anexemplary payment processing network may include, for example, VisaNet™.Payment processing networks such as VisaNet™ are able to process creditcard transactions, debit card transactions, and other types ofcommercial transactions. VisaNet™, in particular, includes a VIP system(Visa Integrated Payments system) which processes authorization requestsand a Base II system which performs clearing and settlement services.The payment processing network may use any suitable wired or wirelessnetwork, including the Internet.

Although many of the data processing functions and features of someembodiments may be present in the payment processing network 140 (and aserver computer therein), it should be understood that such functionsand features could be present in other components such as the issuercomputer 150, and need not be present in the payment processing network140, or a server computer therein.

An application management server 141 may include any server computerconfigured to communicate with a digital concierge application 111. Theapplication management server 141 may be responsible for responding tooffer update requests, ATM location requests, or any other data requestsfrom a digital concierge application 111. In some embodiments, theapplication management server 141 may determine whether the digitalconcierge application software may need an update, whether theapplication 111 should have updated offer data 144, issuer data 143, orATM data 145, and may manage the process of updating the digitalconcierge application 111 or any of the data used by the digitalconcierge application 111. Additionally, the application managementserver 141 may accept the user registration details provided duringregistration and store the registration details in a user profile datadatabase 146.

The application management server 141 may include an issuer identifiermodule 142. The issuer identifier module 142 may be used during aregistration process of a digital concierge application 111 to determinean issuer associated with a user registering the digital conciergeapplication 111. For example, the issuer identifier module 142 may usethe issuer identifier information (e.g., BIN) provided by the userduring registration to map the BIN using look-up table to determine anissuer and product (e.g., account type) associated with the BIN and/oraccount number (e.g., PAN) associated with the user. The issueridentifier module 142 may then direct the type of information sent tothe digital concierge application 111 including the issuer data 143provided to the application. This information may be stored in the userprofile data database 146 for future reference during future updates.Accordingly, a user profile data database 146 may include a digitalconcierge application identifier (e.g., phone number or any otherinformation used to identify the portable electronic device 110 ordigital concierge application 111 associated with a user) associatedwith a particular user or portable electronic device 110 and may informthe application management server 141 whether a digital conciergeapplication 111 has been personalized with issuer information and whattype of issuer data from the issuer data database 143 should be updated,sent, or otherwise provided to a particular portable electronic device110.

The payment processing network 140 may further include one or moredatabases, such as an issuer data database 143, an offer data database144, an ATM data database 145, and a user profile data database 146.Each of the databases shown in this example may comprise more than onedatabase, and may be located in the same location or at a number ofdifferent locations.

An offer data database 144 may include generic offers that may bedelivered to any of the registered digital concierge applications.Offers may include both promotional offers such as promotions, coupons,discounts, etc. as well as accountholder benefits such as accountholderinsurance against loss of baggage, insurance against fraudulent charges,etc. The promotional offers and accountholder benefit offers may bestored separately or may all be stored in the offer data database 144.Additionally, the offer data database 144 may include one or moredifferent versions of each offer so that different social networkingsites with different requirements for messages can have content to postdescribing the offer. These sharable offers may be posted to thedifferent social networking sites if a user chooses to share them.

In some embodiments, the offer data may include location specificinformation, with a sub-folder for each Mobile Network Code (MNC) forwhich information is stored. Each sub-folder may include a XML file, a“manifest” file, and a mobile electronic device subfolder. The XML filemay describe the offers available in that region. The “manifest” filemay include a name and timestamp for the last time the offer informationand their associated graphics were changed. If the timestamp for a filein the manifest is not newer than the last update, then the file may bepassed over or avoided by the offer management module and may not bedownloaded, since the offer is already the most recent available. Themobile electronic device subfolders may include a subfolder for eachmobile electronic device that the digital concierge application isdesigned to operate on (e.g. iPhone™, Blackberry™, Android™, etc.) whichcontain size-optimized graphics to be used for displaying the variousoffers on each type of device.

An ATM data database 145 may include information identifying locationswhere issuers may have ATMs. The ATM data database 145 may be organizedin any suitable manner including by issuer or geographic location.Additionally, the application management server 141 may send all orparticular portions of the ATM data to a portable electronic device 110after registration of a digital concierge application and may provideupdates of the ATM data. The ATM data 145 may be updated wheneverrequested or periodically.

The issuer data database 143 may include any issuer-specificinformation. For example, some issuers may have specific conciergeservices, issuer specific offers including both promotions andaccountholder benefits, issuer specific ATM information, or any otherspecific issuer information that may be used by the digital conciergeapplication.

The user profile data database 146 may include any informationassociated with the user. For example, the user profile data database146 may comprise the portable electronic device identifier, account andissuer identifiers, history of transactions, or any other relevantinformation that may be used in a transaction.

An issuer may typically refer to a business entity (e.g., a bank orother financial institution) that maintains financial accounts for theuser and often issues a payment device such as a credit or debit card tothe user. A “merchant” may typically refer to an entity that engages intransactions and can sell goods or services to the user. An “acquirer”may typically refer to a business entity (e.g., a commercial bank orfinancial institution) that has a business relationship with aparticular merchant or similar entity. Some entities can perform bothissuer and acquirer functions.

A “server computer” is typically a powerful computer or cluster ofcomputers. For example, the server computer can be a large mainframe, aminicomputer cluster, or a group of servers functioning as a unit. Inone example, the server computer may be a database server coupled to aWeb server.

II. Exemplary Methods

Exemplary methods implementing some of the functionality describedherein according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention aredescribed below with reference to the system diagram of FIG. 1. Themethods described below are exemplary in nature, and are not intended tobe limiting. Methods in accordance with some embodiments describedherein may include (or omit) some or all of the steps described below,and may include steps in a different order than described herein.

A. Registration Process

FIG. 2 shows a process flow chart of the registration process 200 for auser according to one embodiment of the invention. The registrationprocess 200 may be a pre-requisite for using the application with allusers performing one of two levels of registration: basic or enhanced.During basic registration, users may provide their name, email address,and basic product details. The basic registration process enables usersto access generic functionality including generic offers provided to allusers and ATM location functionality. Users that register through thebasic method may be referred to as basic users. Furthermore, many of thebasic registration fields may be automatically populated as allowed bythe operating system (OS) of the portable electronic device if the OS ofthe portable electronic device stores personal information (e.g., auser's name, email address, contact information, etc.) about the user.

Alternatively, enhanced registration may include the user providingadditional information as well as the basic information supplied in thebasic registration. Specifically, in the enhanced registration process,users may provide an account issuer identifier (e.g., a bankidentification number (BIN)) for the issuer associated with theiraccount. Providing the issuer identifier may enable a greater degree ofservice personalization and access to the concierge service because someissuers may have predetermined relationships with particular conciergeservices or may provide additional issuer specific offers including bothpromotions and accountholder benefits. These users may be referred to asenhanced users. The issuer identifier may be stored and communicatedwith the application management server instead of the full personalaccount number (PAN) of the credit card or account for securitypurposes. Additionally, the user's PAN may not be used in allembodiments because in some embodiments of the present invention, theoffers may be personalized by issuer, not by user account.

Registering a user with the digital concierge application can beperformed when the application has a data connection with acommunication network or otherwise may communicate with an applicationmanagement server. The user-registration data may be entered by the userinto the digital concierge application and may be passed to aregistration module located at an application management server. Theregistration process may be completed using any suitable protocolincluding a simple and secure HTTPS Application Programming Interface(API) with the application management server including the registrationmodule which may have the proper certificates installed. The URL and APIfor the registration module may be embedded into the application. Theregistration module may indicate, through the API, whether or not theregistration request was successful to the digital conciergeapplication.

In step 201, upon launching the application for the first time, theinitial registration screen may be displayed to the user. The initialregistration screen prompts the user to enter registration detailsincluding personal identification details for basic registration.

In step 202, the user may provide their registration details. Theregistration details may include first name, last name, email address,telephone number, and product type (which may be presented in a dropdown list). Additionally, the user may be prompted to agree to the termsand conditions of the service.

During the initial registration, the user may also register using theenhanced registration options. An optional issuer identifier field maybe provided for the user to submit their financial institution cardinformation enabling full issuer personalized registration to occur. Forexample, the card number field may be obscured on entry and only the BINrange may be stored. Furthermore, the application may contain logic toprompt for the correct BIN range depending on the country version of theapplication downloaded or the location of the portable electronic deviceat the time of registration. For example, Mexico and Brazil may promptfor the first 9 digits but other country versions could prompt fordifferent BIN ranges (e.g., first 6 digits). Additionally, theapplication may contain a lookup table that associates BIN ranges withparticular issuers or products.

In step 203, on submission of the initial registration screen, theregistration details provided by the user are validated by theregistration module of the digital concierge application (e.g., theapplication may ensure mandatory fields and valid BIN ranges areentered) before the registration details are sent securely to anapplication management server including a registration applicationprogramming interface (API) so that registrations can be tracked by theservice provider (e.g., payment processing network in FIG. 1). Theapplication management server may store some or all of the registrationdetails in a user profile data database. The user profile data databasemay store which issuer identifier is associated with the user's digitalconcierge application, portable electronic device, or user accountinformation. In some embodiments, the user profile data could also storepayment information, a history of offers redeemed or selected by theuser, or any other information that may be useful in operating orenhancing the digital concierge application.

In step 204, the application may receive a registration status updatefrom the application management server informing the application whetherthe registration was successful. After registration is complete, astatus screen may be displayed to the user showing success or failure inaddition to the level of issuer personalization the user has signed upfor (basic or enhanced registration).

In step 205, the registration module may determine whether the userregistered as a basic or enhanced user (i.e., provided an issueridentifier during registration) and may download or receive differentinformation depending on the personalization level of the registeredapplication. The registration module may determine the personalizationlevel by communicating with the application management server,determining whether issuer data has been stored on the portableelectronic device previously, by investigating a flag or data stored onthe portable electronic device that indicates the status of theregistration (e.g., basic or enhanced), or through any other suitablemanner.

In step 206, if the user has provided the issuer identifier andcompleted an enhanced registration, the application may receive issuerdata including special or issuer specific promotions and accountholderbenefits associated with the issuer identified during the enhancedregistration.

In step 207, no matter the registration method (basic or enhanced) orlevel of personalization, the application may receive concierge servicescontact information. The concierge services contact information may beprovided in any suitable manner including a look-up table based on userlocation, issuer identifier, or any other suitable criteria. Forexample, a concierge service may have different contact information fortravelers located in the United States than those located in Mexico oranother South American country. Additionally, the concierge servicecontact information may comprise different contact options for eachgeographic location. For example, the concierge service contactinformation may include an email address for a concierge service, a URLto contact a live chat features with a concierge service representative,a contact number for text messaging or short message service (SMS)messages, or any other suitable contact information that the conciergecontact module may use to contact a concierge service representative.The concierge contact data may be saved on the portable electronicdevice. In alternative embodiments, the concierge contact module maysend a request to a central concierge service contact each time the userrequests to contact a concierge and may receive the appropriate contactinformation in return.

In step 208, no matter the registration method (basic or enhanced), theapplication may receive generic offer data from the applicationmanagement server. As explained previously, offer data may include bothpromotions and accountholder benefits associated with an account.Generic offers may include general, nation-wide, or world-wide offersthat may be used by any issuer associated with the application provider.Furthermore, the generic offers may include local or global offers. Forinstance, the offers may include offers from a large number ofcountries, may be limited by geography, or all offers registered with anapplication provider may be provided to the digital conciergeapplication. If only a limited set of offers are provided to theapplication based on location, region, etc., the offers may beautomatically updated at any suitable time. For example, if the offermanagement module determines that the user may be traveling to an areawhere the offer management module does not have offers loaded, the offermanagement module may request updated offers for that region from anapplication management server or otherwise may be provided with theupdated offers.

In step 209, no matter the registration method (basic or enhanced), theapplication may receive ATM data. The ATM data may include ATM locationdata and may be provided in any suitable format. For example, map datamay be provided such that the application provides its own free standingmap program with embedded ATM location data or the ATM locationinformation may merely embed ATM locations into separate mappingprograms already present on the portable electronic device. Furthermore,in some embodiments, the ATM data may be provided during each requestfor an ATM location and no ATM data may be stored on the portableelectronic device.

In step 210, once the various digital concierge application data isdownloaded, the application may display a main menu comprising thefunctional modules available for consumer interaction. The main menu maybe interactive such that the user may initiate any of the functionalitydescribed herein by touching a screen, speaking into a microphone, orotherwise interacting with the portable electronic device. FIG. 4illustrates an exemplary screenshot of the modules displayed to the userin an exemplary graphical user interface.

As shown in FIG. 4, the main menu may include a promotions servicemodule 420, a benefit service module 430, a concierge service module440, an ATM locator module 450, and a settings module 460. The main menumay further provide a display title 411 and inform the user of theproduct that is registered 412. For example, in FIG. 4, the digitalconcierge application has been registered with a platinum credit card,accordingly the user is an enhanced user and is registered as beingassociated with a particular issuer. In some embodiments, issuerinformation may be displayed in this area as well as the productinformation. Each of these displayed modules is interactive and the usermay select any of the modules to launch functionality related to eachmodule. These modules may be described in further detail below.

B. Concierge Service Module

A concierge service module may provide local concierge contactinformation so that a user may contact a concierge servicerepresentative, no matter where they are located in the world. Usingembodiments of the present invention, the concierge contact module mayprovide general information, reservations, directions, call completion,meeting organization, and courier services as well as other customeroriented services and functionality. Additionally, the concierge servicemay allow users to submit claims for accountholder benefits, sign up fornew accountholder benefits, or perform any other customer serviceoriented services for the user. The user may interact with a conciergeservice representative through e-mail, a phone call, chatting, or textmessaging services. The concierge service representative may be a realperson for some tasks (e.g., completing a call, organizing a meeting,etc.) or a computer program for other tasks (e.g. making a reservation,providing directions, submitting a service claim, etc.). FIGS. 5A-5Bshow exemplary embodiments of a graphical user interface associated withthe concierge module on a portable electronic device according to oneembodiment of the invention.

As shown in FIG. 5A, when a user accesses the concierge section of theapplication the user may be presented with multiple contact options441-444. For example, “Email Us” 442 or “Call Us,” 441 may be used tocontact the concierge service representative through email or phone callrespectively. These buttons provide a “one-click” solution such that theuser does not have to type in a phone number or email address. The usermerely presses the button 441,442 and the phone call may be made or theemail may be pre-filled with the appropriate contact information. It isalso possible to implement a “Text Us” 443 or “Chat With Us” 444 optionsthat provide a texting or chatting contact option to access a conciergeservice. The chatting or texting functionality may work similarly to thedescribed call and email systems but may connect directly to a human orcomputer system that could answer questions through sending andreceiving texts from the user.

FIG. 5B shows an exemplary graphical user interface when the userselects the “Click to Call” option. The user may be presented with oneof two possible numbers to call as on-screen buttons 445: a generalnumber or a personalized number. The general number may be a world-widenumber or the number of the country where the application was originallydownloaded. The personalized number may be based on the location of theportable electronic device and may be determined by accessing the GPSlocation information of the portable electronic device or through anyother suitable method as described herein. The personalized number mayalso be based on the language settings of the application such that theconcierge speaks the user's language even if the user is traveling in aforeign country.

Providing a personalized number provides the benefit of connecting theuser with a concierge that is familiar with the businesses and servicesprovided in the area. This may result in a faster and more rewardingconcierge experience for the user. Furthermore, connecting with aconcierge that is localized may ensure that the best possible deals areprovided to the user as the concierge may be more familiar with dealsthat are located in the area they usually provide services for.Additionally, using a local concierge may strengthen the businessrelationships between the concierge service provider and the localbusinesses in the area as they become familiar with the conciergeservice that usually contacts them.

The concierge contact numbers may be determined through any suitablemethod. For example, the concierge contact module may use a conciergeservice contact look-up table to map a Mobile Network Codes (MNCs) beingused by the portable electronic device to one or more local numbers thatconnect to the concierge service. A default concierge number may also beincluded which should be used when the MNC is not one of thoseexplicitly included in the look-up table. Additionally, a location of aportable electronic device may be determined through use of a GPSreceiver, triangulation of communication network signals, or any othersuitable method. The location may then be mapped to the conciergeservice contact look-up table and localized concierge contactinformation may be determined.

Thereafter, the user may select one of the contact options which mayinitiate a manner of contacting the concierge (e.g., a phone call inthis case). The phone call may be initiated with the selected numberusing the portable electronic device's (e.g., phone's) standardvoice-call interface. The portable electronic device may connect theuser to a live concierge service representative who can help the userwith whatever service they are requesting.

Alternatively, if the user selects the “click to email” option insteadof the click to call option, the user may be presented with a screenthat enables the user to select a subject for their email from adropdown list and a free text section for the body text. A dropdownoption of “Other” may be available which enables users to enter a freetext subject relating to their query if selected. The email form may bepre-filled with information obtained during registration including name,email address, product type, language preference, and telephone number.The email may also be preformatted with a standard request forinformation or a request for a call from the concierge without requiringthe user to input any information. The concierge email addresses may bedetermined using a similar process to that described above in regards tothe telephone number. The email address may be a single address for allusers if there is a single entry-point for all concierge email requests,or a local concierge email address could be provided through anemail-address to MNC mapping.

Once a user submits an email subject, the user may then be prompted toconfirm their contact details for the response. Two options may bedisplayed: email and phone. If email is selected the first name, lastname, email address, language and product type provided at registrationare shown to the user. A button may be provided for them to update theirregistration details if necessary which may overwrite the registrationsettings stored details on the phone. If phone is selected the mobilenumber is shown. Once a contact option is selected, an email may be sentto the concierge service with the details included. An email statusscreen may be shown to the user as a success or failure.

C. Promotions Service Module

FIG. 3 shows a process flow chart of the promotions module 300 accordingto one embodiment of the invention. The digital concierge application'spromotions functionality may enable users to browse either generic ortargeted promotions (specific to their country, geographic location, orissuer) based on their registration preference (registration detailsprovided by the user during registration). The promotions service modulemay be a portion of the offer management module shown in FIG. 1.

The promotions service module may present three types of promotions tothe user: global promotional offers, local promotional offers, andissuer-specific promotional offers. Global promotional offers mayinclude generic promotional offers that may be provided to all users ofa particular product (i.e., type of account the user has with theissuer). The global promotional offers may or may not be for globalmerchants, companies, or service providers that are not locationdependent. Local promotional offers may include promotional offers thatare only offered in certain geographic locations. The local promotionaloffers may be for small businesses or businesses that are only offeredin a particular country or region. Issuer or BIN specific promotionaloffers may include promotional offers that a specific issuer orfinancial entity provides only for those users who have an account withthe issuer. These promotional offers may also be local or global. Theseoffers may be provided through issuer data downloaded separately fromthe application management server or may be included in the offer dataprovided by the application management server. Local or issuer specificoffers may be displayed first and provided higher relevance scores.However, the user may be provided the ability to further filter thepromotional offers using an interactive feature to further filter theoptions by the country, category, subcategory, or region. Additionally,further filtering may be available based on any suitable offer criteria(e.g., merchant, expiration date, issue or generation date, etc.).

As shown in FIG. 6, the promotional offers may include an “inbox” thatprovides general or basic promotional offer information along withmerchant branding or an icon indicating the type of service or productthat is the subject of the promotional offer 422. Additionally, theoffer details including the terms and conditions 426B as well asqualifications information 427 may be displayed separate from thegeneral offer information 422-425 and may allow a user to investigatethis information if they so wish. The offers may also be redeemed,shared, saved for later use, or otherwise interacted with using a“one-click” solution. FIGS. 6 and 7A-7B illustrate example screenshotsof the promotions module displaying promotional offers to the user. FIG.6 shows an exemplary promotional offer inbox while FIGS. 7A and 7B showpromotional offer details 427 and share options 429A-429D for a selectedoffer 422.

Returning to FIG. 3, a method of providing filtered offers to a user isshown, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Instep 301, the method begins when the user launches the promotionsservice module from the main menu (as shown in FIG. 4).

In step 302, a list of local and global offers may be retrieved from anoffer data file or database. In some embodiments, the offer data may beupdated or refreshed and updated offers may be received from anapplication management server using an XML data feed or other suitablemethod. The offer data may contain offer information and offer attributedata (e.g., an associated region, country, category, merchant,associated issuer, expiration date, etc., to the offer) to allowpersonalization details to be applied and filtering to occur. Basicusers may be provided with only generic promotional offers and enhanceduser may be provided with both generic promotional offers andissuer-specific offers. Accordingly, enhanced users may be shown apersonalized list of offers including targeted promotional offers forthe specific card or product corresponding to their registered profile.The offer data can be refreshed manually through the use of a refreshbutton, triggering a new offer update request to the applicationmanagement server.

In step 303, the application may determine location of the portableelectronic device. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the offer managementmodule may use the mobile electronic device's GPS functionality (e.g.,GPS receiver or chip) to determine where the portable electronic deviceis currently located. The application may use the portable electronicdevice's GPS functionality to filter offers by location, displayinglocal offers first in a list by providing a higher relevance score forlocal offers based on proximity to the city, region, or country wherethe user is currently located.

In step 304, the application may determine concierge data associatedwith the user. For example, the offer management module may determinewhether the user may be traveling to another country, region, state,city, etc. in the near future from concierge data provided by aconcierge service representative. For example, as explained previously,the offer management module may determine whether the user is travelingto another region by receiving and interpreting concierge data includinga travel itinerary, a calendar, coded messages provided by a conciergeservice representative, or any other suitable method.

In step 305, the offers may automatically be filtered according to thedetermined location and concierge data. The offers may be filtered usingany suitable method. For example, in some embodiments, a relevance scoremay be provided for each received offer and the offers may then befiltered and ordered according to their relevance score. In someembodiments, if an offer does not meet a particular relevance scorethreshold, the offer may be deleted from the offer data or otherwise notshown to the user.

In some embodiments, relevance scores may be allocated and determinedthrough a number of methods including providing higher scores for offersin a local area (neighborhood, city, state, etc.), then providing offersthat may be present for an area that the concierge data indicates theuser may be traveling to in the future. The closer the travel date tothe present date, the more relevance points may be provided to thepromotional offer. Accordingly, as the travel date approaches, a usermay find the offers more relevant to their experience and on the date ofthe travel, the user may be provided with offers corresponding to wherethey are traveling instead of merely promotional offers for where theyare leaving from or currently located. Accordingly, the user is providedwith a method of receiving more relevant offers and information fortheir upcoming travel. Next, issuer specific offers may be provided witha higher relevance score than general or global promotional offers (forenhanced users). Furthermore, the relevance points may be distributedaccording to a hierarchy of country specific offers, then regional orcontinent-specific offers, and finally world-wide or global offers thatare negotiated by a payment processing service provider.

Accordingly, in some embodiments, offers that are local andissuer-specific to the user's current or future location may be providedmore relevance points than offers that are global and non-issuerspecific. However, any other methods for allocating promotional offerrelevance points may be implemented and any other method of ranking,filtering, or determining which offers to present to a user may beimplemented.

In step 306, the promotional services module determines if the user isregistered as an enhanced user. The promotional services module may makethis determination by determining if issuer data is present on theportable electronic device, determining if a flag, setting, or data typehas been triggered to inform the module that issuer data should bereceived or determined, by requesting the personalization level from theapplication management server 141 which may determine the status of theuser registration using the user profile data 146, or through any othersuitable method.

In steps 307A and 307B, the filtered promotional offers may be presentedto the user. The filtered offers may be displayed through any suitablemeans including a list, a diagram, or any other organizational method.For example, in one embodiment, the offers may be displayed on a listfrom most relevant at the top of the list to the least relevant at thebottom of the list. As a user browses through the offers, the lowerrelevance offers may be displayed until the last filtered offer ispresented.

If the user is a basic user, then the offer management module maypresent generic promotional offers including both local and globalpromotion offers. If the user is an enhanced user than the offermanagement module may present both issuer promotional offers and genericpromotional offers. For example, as shown in the exemplary graphicaluser interface of FIG. 6, a user may be presented with a list ofpromotional offers 422-425 including a promotional offer related toshopping at a department store in the city where the portable electronicdevice is located or where the user may be traveling to soon 422, a boattour provided exclusively for users associated with issuer 423, andother promotional offers 424-425. Accordingly, the list of offers may befiltered according to the issuer offers and proximity of the promotionaloffers to the user's location.

In step 308, the application may also offer the user the ability tofurther customize the filtering of promotional offers by region,country, category, or subcategory to make browsing easier through a userfilter input 421. This manual filtering or user filtering input maycause the offer management module to re-allocate relevance scores or maymerely use keyword searching in the promotional offer criteria,description, or other data for offers that meet a particular criteria.Additionally, the manual filtering may reset the relevance scores sothat the normal filtering does not apply when the manual user inputfiltering is applied. Accordingly, the user may interact and influencethe filtering of the promotional offers in the application to allow theuser to find a particular promotional offer that they may be searchingfor. For example, as shown in the exemplary graphical user interface ofFIG. 6, a user may be provided with a filter option 421 that may allowthe user to select further filtering options.

In step 309, the application may receive a selection of a promotionaloffer by the user. The user may navigate through the presentedpromotional offers and may interact with one of the icons or briefdescriptions to obtain additional information regarding the promotionaloffer. In some embodiments, the offers may ask for an update from theoffer management module when the user attempts to access the offer.Accordingly, the offer management module may try to update or refreshthe offer by communicating with the application management server.Alternatively, if live updating is disabled, the location based offersmay be updated when the user triggers a manual update. In the case of alive-update, the user may be shown the existing data whilst the updateis taking place, and then be shown the updated data when thedownload/update check is completed. Settings may allow a user to togglethe automatic fetching of offers.

In step 310, upon selecting a particular promotional offer, thepromotional offer details may be displayed or presented to the user,including any terms and conditions. For example, as shown in theexemplary graphical user interface of FIG. 7A, a user may select apromotional offer 422 for shopping at a department store that provide10% off purchases made at the department store for a particular day andmay obtain additional details 427 regarding the promotional offer. Forinstance, a user may be provided with a marketing message 427 and anoption to share 428 or redeem (not shown) the promotional offer 422.

In step 311, the application receives an input by the user. A number ofdifferent options may be displayed to the user in the detail section,depending on the type of promotional offer and the possible redemptionsteps. For example, if the promotional offer requires a purchase orother further action by the user, the user may be shown a redemptionbutton. If the user presses the redemption button, the offer managementmodule may begin a redemption process and interact with the paymentprocessing network, issuer, or a merchant to complete the redemptionrequest. Alternatively, the user may be provided with sharing options429A-429D (as shown in FIG. 7B). Accordingly, the application mayreceive an input to share the offer.

In step 312, the user may enter the option to share the promotionaloffer and the application may receive the selected share option.Embodiments of the present invention may provide a number of options forsharing offers including email 429B, text message 429A, via social medianetworks 429C-429D (e.g., Facebook™, Twitter™, or Orkut™), or any othersuitable methods of communicating with colleagues or friends. Forexample, as shown in the exemplary graphical user interface of FIG. 7B,a number of different sharing options 429A-429D may be displayed to theuser.

In step 313, a user may be prompted to grant permission to post to theirselected network on their behalf. This may involve the userauthenticating with the network via the standard login process (e.g.,OpenAuth™) which may be displayed as a layer on top of the applicationor through any other suitable method. Once logged in, the user may thenbe able to use the application share buttons to post to their personalnewsfeed (e.g. Facebook Wall™ or Twitter Timeline™) (step 314). Theapplication may use the standard social media APIs to achieve thesharing (e.g. OpenGraph™ API, Twitter™ API) or any other suitable methodto achieve the sharing of information.

Third party open-source libraries may be used for both theauthentication and social-network linking uses. Each social networkserver computer may also be addressed using its relevant authenticationmethod which may be different for each social network. In the event of achange in the API for a social network, the digital conciergeapplication may require updating, which may be initiated by theapplication management server, the digital concierge application, or anyother suitable entity.

If the option to share by email is selected, users may be presented withtheir contact address book which may be filtered for users with emailaddresses. On selecting a contact (step 315), a pre-configured email maybe sent with details of the offer (step 316) and a success message maybe displayed to the user (step 317). If the recipient is not in theusers address book, users may also be able to enter a free-text emailaddress. A similar process may be implemented for texting a contact orfor any other future communication sharing methods for contacting usersfrom a portable electronic device.

As shown in step 318, if a user decides to redeem or purchase apromotional offer, the digital concierge application may receive anoffer redemption input. The offer management module may then collectpayment information from the user, may confirm the user wants topurchase or redeem the promotional offer, and otherwise may prepare amessage informing the payment processing network, issuer, or merchant ofthe request to redeem or purchase the offer. Additionally, a mobilewallet that is installed on the portable electronic device or on aserver somewhere may be used to obtain purchase or account information.

In step 319, the offer management module may send a selected offer tothe application management server with an indication that the user wouldlike to redeem or purchase the selected offer. The offer managementmodule may then leverage its position at the payment processing network(in the exemplary system shown in FIG. 1) to complete a transactionaccording to the terms of the selected offer. Accordingly, the offer maybe redeemed through any suitable method. For example, a redemptionrequest message may be generated that includes an indication of theaccount associated with the user and payment information for generatingan authorization request message that may be sent to an issuer toauthorize a transaction according to the terms of the selected offer. Ifthe payment information is authorized, the payment processing networkmay receive an authorization response message from the issuer and mayforward the authorization response message to a merchant associated withthe offer. Additionally, in some embodiments, the digital concierge maybe incorporated into or coupled with a mobile wallet or mobile paymentapplication. Accordingly, the digital concierge application may haveaccess to the user's payment information and may collaborate with themobile wallet or mobile payment application to complete a transaction.

In step 320, after sending the payment information, the offer managementmodule may receive offer redemption information associated with theselected offer that informs the user how they may go about redeeming orcollecting the subject matter of the offer. The offer redemptioninformation may comprise any suitable information. For example, theoffer redemption information may include a confirmation number to bepresented to a merchant in exchange for a purchased item, may comprise aconfirmation message that a transaction has been completed, or mayinclude any other suitable information. Accordingly, in someembodiments, the user may be capable of redeeming or completing apurchase using a selected offer presented by the digital conciergeapplication.

Although, many of the modules described above are located at theportable electronic device, in other embodiments of the presentinvention, all of the modules located on the portable electronic devicecould be present in the application management server computer orelsewhere. Accordingly, the portable electronic device may act as aclient and the payment processing network server computer may completeall or some of the processing steps shown in FIG. 3. This could be trueof any of the embodiments and functionality described herein, for any ofthe modules.

D. Accountholder Benefits Service Module

An accountholder or cardholder benefits module may enable a user toquickly view the benefits associated with using their registered accountor card. Accountholder benefits may include services that may beincluded in the service agreement between the accountholder and theaccount issuer, bank, or payment processing service that provides theaccount service or they may be optional benefits offered to cardholders.For example, cardholder benefits could include insurance, fraudprotection, reward systems for purchases, etc. The benefits offersreturned may either by generic or personalized based on the registrationsetting and there may be an option to easily contact a customer servicerepresentative to activate optional benefits that are explained. Thecustomer service representative contact options may be geo-located toprovide local phone numbers as explained above regarding the conciergecontact module. Additionally, the concierge service may provide thecustomer service as well. The benefit offers may be “cached” or saved onthe portable electronic device such that they may be accessed even whenthe portable electronic device does not have access to a data orcellular network. FIGS. 8A-8B illustrate an exemplary graphical userinterface for an accountholder benefits service module presenting aplurality of benefit offers.

The accountholder benefits service module may implement a similar methodas that explained above regarding the promotional offers service module.The user may access the cardholder benefits module which may initiate arequest for updates to the application management server or may receiveinformation from an offer data database located on the portableelectronic device.

The list of available cardholder benefits may be filtered similarly tothe promotional offers explained above in reference to FIG. 3. Forexample, relevance scores may be assigned to each accountholder benefitsoffer where the points are provided based on location and conciergedata. However, because benefits offers may not be as dependent onlocation of the user at any given time, fewer relevance points may beprovided for the location of the portable electronic device. However,benefit offers that are limited by geographic location includingcountry, region, continent, etc. may still be filtered according torelevance points provided based on location of the portable electronicdevice. Additionally, relevance points may be provided based on theusers registration settings with generic benefits retrieved for basicusers based on the product selected at registration, and targetedbenefits retrieved for enhanced users, and targeted benefits providedmore relevance points. Additionally, targeted benefit offers may bebased on the issuer identifier (e.g., BIN number) of the registereddigital concierge application.

As shown in FIGS. 8A-8B, an initial screen showing benefit categories431-434 may be shown enabling the user to click through to a list ofassociated benefits. The benefits list 431-434 may display text andimages relating to the offer. The offer could be savings when using thecard at a particular merchant, travel insurance when purchasing travelrelated products, or any other type of cardholder benefit provided byfinancial institutions to incentive spending or distinguish their cardfrom other cards. For example, a financial institution may decide totarget consumers who fly often so they may offer an airline miles cardwhere users may be given airline mile points as a benefit for purchasesthey make. Furthermore, the card may provide travel insurance on anypurchases made with the card related to travel. The airline miles cardmay have rules related to how the points and the travel insurance offersare provided, including how long the points are available to be used,which purchases are eligible for travel insurance, and other terms ofthe benefits. The benefits list may retrieve and display the programname, such as “travel insurance” if the card is associated with anissuer identifier that correlates to the type of product or account thatprovides those offers. These issuer-specific offers may be included inissuer data provided by the application management server or through thegeneral offer data.

As shown in FIG. 8B, an offer can be selected 432 and offer details maybe displayed 435. The details 435 may provide information related to theterms and conditions, geographical eligibility information, any limitson the offers, etc. For example, the user could select the “baggagedelay insurance” offer as shown in FIG. 8B. The user may be shown thedetails of the offers as described above and may have an option tocontact 436 a concierge service representative or customer servicerepresentative responsible for fielding questions by users, acceptingclaims under the system, or performing any other services related to theaccountholder benefits. There may be a “Click to Call” option 436 oneach offer as a call to action for the cardholder to take advantage ofthe offers they are provided by their card. This click-to-call option436 may function as described in earlier sections regarding theconcierge module. As described above in reference to FIG. 3, anysuitable contact options may be provided including chat, email, textmessage, or any other suitable method of contact.

E. Atm Locator Service Module

FIGS. 9A-9B show exemplary embodiments of a graphical user interfaceassociated with the ATM locator module on a portable electronic deviceaccording to one embodiment of the invention. The ATM locator module maybe configured to allow users to find any ATM around their currentposition, based on the portable electronic device location.Additionally, a user can search for an ATM using a landmark, address, ortype of ATM as well.

As shown in FIG. 9A, in some embodiments, a user may initiate the ATMlocation service module and the ATM location module may retrieve theportable electronic device's current position 453 and the currentlocation may be set to the default search location for ATMs 454 in thesurrounding area. A screen may be presented to the user where thedefault search parameters may be amended by the user in search inputarea 451. Additionally, in some embodiments, the default searchparameters may include the option to modify the location by entering azip code 451. Furthermore, for enhanced users, an option may allow theuser to decide whether to display account issuer specific ATMs only andthis data may be pulled from the issuer data provided duringregistration. Alternatively, a request may be sent to the applicationmanagement server computer for location data included in the ATM data orissuer data.

Furthermore, upon the search details being submitted, the ATM locationmay be determined by the ATM location module using the ATM data todetermine the ATM locations. Alternatively, a request may be generatedby the ATM location module and may be passed to an ATM search service atthe application management server (or elsewhere) which returns a list ofa predetermined size (e.g., up to 30) of the closest matching ATMlocations to the ATM location module. These locations may be shown asdots 454 on the screen.

The list of ATM results may include an ATM's location, distance from theportable electronic device (via geo-location details), and addressdetails. Additional search results can be loaded once the user hasscrolled to the bottom of the results list. This information may betaken from a live-system or alternatively, the ATM data may be updatedperiodically based on current location and cached in an ATM datadatabase in case the device goes into an offline state or losesconnection to the communication network.

Furthermore, the application may also provide the ability for the userto toggle the search results list view using a view options button 457to display a map showing up to the predetermined number of ATM locationsoverlaid on a small-scale map (as shown in FIG. 9A). Map sizing may bescaled to the number of ATM locations in proximity to the handset'scurrent location. A large number of locations (e.g.—in city centers) maycause a small-scale map to be created (e.g.—<1 mile). A small number oflocations (e.g.—in rural areas) may cause a large-scale map to becreated (e.g.—25-mile map). A lower number of mapped search results maygenerate a large scale map. ATM icons on the map can also be selected toview the ATM detail screen 454. The map display may provide buttons sothat the map views can be toggled between Map, Satellite, and Hybridviews 457. Map view (shown in FIG. 9A) may include a representation ofthe mapped area while only showing the street names and other inputitems on the map. Satellite view (not shown) may show the area to bemapped as it is seen from the latest satellite image available for thatarea. Finally, a hybrid view (not shown) may show a view combining boththe Map view and the Satellite view, where the street names and otherinput data is laid on top of the Satellite image.

As shown in FIG. 9B, a search result can be selected to show moreinformation 455 regarding ATM type and payment processing network orother financial entity information 456. The screen may also provide abutton to launch a Map view of the location relative to the user (bothto be shown on the map) with an icon indicating the location of the ATM457. Directions could also automatically be provided from the userlocation to the ATM location or a Directions button 457 could bepresented for the user to request directions.

Although, much of the functionality and many of the modules describedabove are located at the portable electronic device or as part of thedigital concierge application installed on the portable electronicdevice, in other embodiments of the present invention, all of themodules located on the portable electronic device could be present inthe application management server computer or elsewhere. Accordingly,the portable electronic device may act as a client and the paymentprocessing network server computer may complete all or some of theprocessing steps described above for any and all of the service modules.

III. Technical Advantages

Embodiments of the present invention provide a number of technicaladvantages. For example, grouping the functions described above throughmodules on a single application in a portable electronic device providesa synergistic effect, resulting in more benefits that are provided bycombining the features than each feature provides individually. Forexample, location based and issuer specific offers can be provided basedon an itinerary that is provided to a concierge through theapplication's email concierge feature. For instance, if a user's travelitinerary (that may have been booked through the digital conciergeapplication using the concierge contact module) suggests that they maybe traveling to Boston, then offers including promotions and coupons fordiscounted goods or services (either issuer and geographically based ormerely geographically based) near the suggested location (Boston) can beprovided to the user. The entire process can be coordinated through theapplication which may be easier for the user to keep track of the offersand know what offers are available in a location they may not befamiliar with. This may lead to more offers being accepted by usersleading to more customer loyalty with the issuer, payment processor, ormerchants. Furthermore, all the data related to the offers and othercard benefits may be easily accessible on the portable electronic devicefor easy referencing whether connected to a communications network ornot. In another example, issuer specific and location specific offerscan be presented to a user no matter where they travel without the userhaving to communicate with a live person. Therefore, the application mayact as a digital concierge service.

Additionally, some embodiments of the present invention may useconcierge data associated with insurance claims, service requests, orservice reports to deliver cardholder or account holder benefit offersand information relevant to a user's current situation while traveling.For example, a user that reports an air carrier has lost their baggagemay have accountholder benefits associated with baggage insurancefiltered as the most relevant and shown to the user. Embodiments of thepresent invention may provide local contact numbers for customer serviceor through the concierge service for such service requests and may beprovided with the benefit of a local concierge that is familiar with thearea, merchants, and service providers. Accordingly, a more enjoyableand beneficial interaction may occur leading to better customer service.

Embodiments of the invention provide the technical advantages ofproviding information to users even when there is no connection to thesource of the information and limiting unnecessary data transfer. Theapplication continually updates information related to promotions andoffers, local concierge contacts, and other information important to auser and stores the data so that the data can be accessed whether or notthe user's portable electronic device has a data connection. Forexample, when a user is traveling and the concierge has notice of thetravel (through access to concierge data including a travel itinerary orby booking the travel through the concierge contact module—e.g. sendingand receiving emails including travel details to the concierge service)the user can have local promotions and offers updated on their phoneprior to traveling on the plane so that the user can review theinformation even though the user may not have cellular or dataconnection. Furthermore, the cardholder benefits that apply to thecredit card account can be present for reference by the user at any timewithout the need for a cellular or data connection. Therefore, nocontinual connection is required to receive information from the cardprovider and or local service providers of services or goods. Thisprovides the additional benefit of not requiring an update of theinformation every time the user wishes to view the information. Instead,the user can opt for the information to only be updated when theymanually agree to the update. Furthermore, if no offer data has beenupdated since the last request (such as the GPS information for theportable electronic device is from the same city or state as previouslyand there are no new offers available in that area) then there is noneed to update the offer information on the phone as it is alreadystored. This can limit unnecessary transmissions of data between theservers and portable electronic device.

Additionally, some embodiments of the present invention provide apersonalized number for contacting a concierge that is determined usinglocation data associated with the portable electronic device. Thisprovides the benefit of connecting the user with a concierge that isfamiliar with the businesses and services provided in the area. This mayresult in a faster and more rewarding concierge experience for the user.Furthermore, connecting with a concierge that is localized may ensurethat the best possible deals are provided to the user as the conciergemay be more familiar with deals that are located in the area where theyusually provide services. Additionally, using a local concierge maystrengthen the business relationships between the concierge serviceprovider and the local businesses in the area as they become familiarwith the concierge service that usually contacts them.

Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may focus on affluent orwealthy cardholders. The application may focus on affluent cardholdersbecause they are the cardholders that most regularly use the promotions,cardholder benefits, and concierge services provided by the application.Affluent cardholders may also travel more and have bigger budgets tospend while traveling. Furthermore, affluent cardholders may need theadditional concierge and offer support while traveling. However, theembodiments of the invention could be tailored to any income level andare not limited to affluent cardholders. Therefore, the applicationcould be used with any card product level (the numbers of dollars spentevery year may determine the product offered to the user).

IV. Exemplary Computer Systems and Portable Electronic Devices

FIG. 10 is a high level block diagram of a computer system that may beused to implement any of the entities or components described above. Thesubsystems shown in FIG. 10 are interconnected via a system bus 1002.Additional subsystems such as a printer 1010, keyboard 1018, fixed disk1020, and monitor 1012, which is coupled to display adapter 1014.Peripherals and input/output (I/O) devices, which couple to I/Ocontroller 1004, can be connected to the computer system by any numberof means known in the art, such as serial port 1084. For example, serialport 1016 or external interface 1022 can be used to connect the computerapparatus to a wide area network such as the Internet, a mouse inputdevice, or a scanner. The interconnection via system bus 1002 allows thecentral processor 1008 to communicate with each subsystem and to controlthe execution of instructions from system memory 1006 or the fixed disk1020, as well as the exchange of information between subsystems. Thesystem memory 1006 and/or the fixed disk 1020 may embody a computerreadable medium.

As described, the inventive service may involve implementing one or morefunctions, processes, operations or method steps. In some embodiments,the functions, processes, operations or method steps may be implementedas a result of the execution of a set of instructions or software codeby a suitably programmed computing device, microprocessor, dataprocessor, or the like. The set of instructions or software code may bestored in a memory or other form of data storage element which isaccessed by the computing device, microprocessor, etc. In otherembodiments, the functions, processes, operations or method steps may beimplemented by firmware or a dedicated processor, integrated circuit,etc.

In embodiments of the present invention, the mobile payment device mayinclude a contactless element capable of communication and data transferusing a near field communication system. As noted, one example is amobile wireless phone equipped with a NFC capability or other shortrange communications technology. FIG. 11 is a functional block diagramillustrating the primary components of a portable electronic device,such as a mobile phone that may be used as part of the inventive systemand method. As illustrated in FIG. 11, the portable electronic device1102 may include circuitry that is used to enable certain telephony andother device functions. The functional elements responsible for enablingthose functions may include a processor 1104 for executing instructionsthat implement the functions and operations of the device. The processor1104 may access data storage 1112 (or another suitable memory region orelement) to retrieve instructions or data used in executing theinstructions. Data input/output elements 1108 may be used to enable auser to input data (via a microphone or keyboard, for example) orreceive output data (via a speaker, for example). Display 1106 may alsobe used to output data to a user. Communications element 1110 may beused to enable data transfer between the device 1102 and a wirelessnetwork (via antenna 1111, for example) to assist in enabling telephonyand data transfer functions. The device 1102 may also includecontactless element interface 1114 to enable data transfer betweencontactless element 1116 and other elements of the device, where thecontactless element 1116 may include a secure memory and a near fieldcommunications or other short range communications data transferelement. The contactless element 1116 may implement a near fieldcommunications or other short range communications capability thatenables communication and data transfer between the device 1102 and adevice reader or POS terminal that is part of a payment transactionprocessing system.

The data storage 1112 may be a memory that stores data, and may be inany suitable form including a memory chip, etc. The memory may be usedto store payment data such as user identification or authenticationinformation, user account information, transaction data, etc. Storedpayment data may also include information such as bank/payment accountinformation, bank identification number (BIN), credit or debit cardaccount number information, account balance information, expirationdate, consumer information such as name, date of birth, etc. The memorymay also be used to store value-add data such as transit data andloyalty program data. Such transit data may include, for example,transit account information, trip counters, fare conversion information,account balance information, etc. Such loyalty program data may includeloyalty account information, loyalty points/credits, account balance,loyalty program rules, terms, and conditions, user preferences, etc.Note that such data may instead, or also be stored in a secure datastorage element or a similar secure memory that is part of contactlesselement 1116. As described, data storage 1112 may also containinstructions which when executed by the processor 1104 implementoperations or processes that are part of the operation of the device orof applications installed on the device.

It should be understood that the present invention as described abovecan be implemented in the form of control logic using computer softwarein a modular or integrated manner. Based on the disclosure and teachingsprovided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art may know andappreciate other ways and/or methods to implement the present inventionusing hardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the software components or functions described in thisapplication may be implemented as software code to be executed by aprocessor using any suitable computer language such as, for example,Java, C++ or Perl using, for example, conventional or object-orientedtechniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructions,or commands on a computer-readable medium, such as a random accessmemory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as ahard-drive or a floppy disk, or an optical medium such as a CD-ROM. Anysuch computer-readable medium may reside on or within a singlecomputational apparatus, and may be present on or within differentcomputational apparatuses within a system or network.

While certain exemplary embodiments have been described in detail andshown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that suchembodiments are merely illustrative of and not intended to berestrictive of the broad invention, and that this invention is not to belimited to the specific arrangements and constructions shown anddescribed, since various other modifications may occur to those withordinary skill in the art.

As used herein, the use of “a”, “an” or “the” is intended to mean “atleast one”, unless specifically indicated to the contrary.

1.-20. (canceled)
 21. A method comprising: receiving, by a communicationelement of a portable electronic device, a plurality of offers from anapplication management server over a communication network; storing, ona data storage memory of the portable electronic device, the pluralityof offers in an offer data database, the offer data database providingaccess to the plurality of offers without a connection to theapplication management server via the communication network; receiving,by the communication element of the portable electronic device over thecommunication network from a concierge service computer, concierge dataincluding a travel itinerary with the one or more of a hotelreservation, restaurant reservation, and travel arrangement, theconcierge service computer associated with a concierge service providerthat previously scheduled the one or more of the hotel reservation, therestaurant reservation, and the travel arrangement on behalf of a user,wherein the concierge data is associated with the user, the conciergeservice computer different from the application management server, theplurality of offers different from the concierge data including thetravel itinerary with the one or more of the hotel reservation, therestaurant reservation, and the travel arrangement; storing, on the datastorage memory of the portable electronic device, the concierge data ina concierge data database; retrieving, from the data storage memory ofthe portable electronic device in response to a menu selection by theuser via a user interface of the portable electronic device, theplurality of offers from the offer data database without using theconnection to the application management server via the communicationnetwork; determining, by a processor of the portable electronic device,a current location of the portable electronic device; determining, bythe processor of the portable electronic device, based on the conciergedata, one or more future locations associated with the user of theportable electronic device by interpreting the travel itinerary toidentify when and where the user will be located by determining one ormore future locations and one or more future times relative to the oneor more of the hotel reservation, restaurant reservation, and the travelarrangement in the travel itinerary and mapping each of the one or morefuture locations on a timeline; and filtering, by the processor of theportable electronic device, without using the connection to theapplication management server via the communication network, theplurality of offers retrieved from the data storage memory of theportable electronic device according to the current location of theportable electronic device, the one or more future locations, and thetimeline.
 22. The method of claim 21, wherein filtering the plurality ofoffers further comprises filtering the plurality of offers according toan issuer associated with the user of the portable electronic device,and wherein the plurality of offers include promotions and couponsassociated with one or more providers.
 23. The method of claim 21,wherein the concierge data includes one or more of a service request anda service response associated with the user.
 24. The method of claim 21,wherein the offers include benefit information associated with anaccount of the user, and wherein the concierge data includes a servicereport.
 25. The method of claim 21, further comprising: transmitting, bythe communication element of the portable electronic device, a requestfor updated offers to the application management server over thecommunication network in response to a predetermined event; receiving,by the communication element of the portable electronic device, theupdated offers from the application management server over thecommunication network; updating, by the processor of the portableelectronic device, the plurality of offers with the updated offers toobtain an updated plurality of offers; filtering, by the processor ofthe portable electronic device, the updated plurality of offers; andstoring, on the data storage memory of the portable electronic device,the updated plurality of offers on the portable electronic device. 26.The method of claim 25, wherein the predetermined event includeslaunching of the application, powering on the portable electronicdevice, or lapsing of a predetermined period of time.
 27. The method ofclaim 21 further comprising: transmitting, by the communication elementof the portable electronic device, the selected offer and userinformation to a social media network server over the communicationnetwork, wherein the social media network server shares the selectedoffer with other social media network users.
 28. The method of claim 21further comprising: determining, by the processor of the portableelectronic device, a local concierge service contact using the currentlocation of the portable electronic device; presenting, via the userinterface of the portable electronic device, contact options to the userto connect to the concierge service; receiving, via the user interfaceof the portable electronic device, a contact selection of one of thecontact options from the user; and contacting, by the portableelectronic device, the concierge service.
 29. The method of claim 21,wherein the portable electronic device is a mobile phone.
 30. The methodof claim 21, wherein the plurality of offers include local offers.
 31. Asystem, comprising: a portable electronic device, comprising: aprocessor; a data storage memory; and a non-transitory computer readablemedium comprising computer code executable by the process to perform amethod, the method comprising receiving, by a communication element ofthe portable electronic device, a plurality of offers from anapplication management server over a communication network; storing, onthe data storage memory of the portable electronic device, the pluralityof offers in an offer data database, the offer data database providingaccess to the plurality of offers without a connection to theapplication management server via the communication network; receiving,by the communication element of the portable electronic device over thecommunication network from a concierge service computer, concierge dataincluding a travel itinerary with the one or more of a hotelreservation, restaurant reservation, and travel arrangement, theconcierge service computer associated with a concierge service providerthat previously scheduled the one or more of the hotel reservation, therestaurant reservation, and the travel arrangement on behalf of a user,wherein the concierge data is associated with the user, the conciergeservice computer different from the application management server, theplurality of offers different from the concierge data including thetravel itinerary with the one or more of the hotel reservation, therestaurant reservation, and the travel arrangement; storing, on the datastorage memory of the portable electronic device, the concierge data ina concierge data database; retrieving, from the data storage memory ofthe portable electronic device in response to a menu selection by theuser via a user interface of the portable electronic device, theplurality of offers from the offer data database without using theconnection to the application management server via the communicationnetwork; determining, by a processor of the portable electronic device,a current location of the portable electronic device; determining, bythe processor of the portable electronic device, based on the conciergedata, one or more future locations associated with the user of theportable electronic device by interpreting the travel itinerary toidentify when and where the user will be located by determining one ormore future locations and one or more future times relative to the oneor more of the hotel reservation, restaurant reservation, and the travelarrangement in the travel itinerary and mapping each of the one or morefuture locations on a timeline; and filtering, by the processor of theportable electronic device, without using the connection to theapplication management server via the communication network, theplurality of offers retrieved from the data storage memory of theportable electronic device according to the current location of theportable electronic device, the one or more future locations, and thetimeline.
 32. The system of claim 31, wherein the filtering of theplurality of offers further comprises filtering the plurality of offersaccording to an issuer associated with the user of the portableelectronic device, and wherein the plurality of offers includepromotions and coupons associated with one or more providers.
 33. Thesystem of claim 31, wherein the concierge data includes one or more of aservice request and a service response associated with the user.
 34. Thesystem of claim 31, wherein the offers include benefit informationassociated with an account of the user, and wherein the concierge dataincludes a service report.
 35. The system of claim 31, wherein themethod further comprises: transmitting, by the communication element, arequest for updated offers to the application management server over thecommunication network in response to a predetermined event; receiving,by the communication element, the updated offers from the applicationmanagement server over the communication network; updating, by theprocessor, the plurality of offers with the updated offers to obtain anupdated plurality of offers; filtering, by the processor, the updatedplurality of offers; and storing, on the data storage memory, theupdated plurality of offers on the portable electronic device.
 36. Thesystem of claim 35, wherein the predetermined event includes launchingof the application, powering on the portable electronic device, orlapsing of a predetermined period of time.
 37. The system of claim 31wherein the method further comprises: transmitting, by the communicationelement, the selected offer and user information to a social medianetwork server over the communication network, wherein the social medianetwork server shares the selected offer with other social media networkusers.
 38. The system of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises:determining, by the processor, a local concierge service contact usingthe current location of the portable electronic device; presenting, viathe user interface, contact options to the user to connect to theconcierge service; receiving, via the user interface, a contactselection of one of the contact options from the user; and contacting,by the portable electronic device, the concierge service.
 39. The systemof claim 31, further comprising the concierge service computer.
 40. Thesystem of claim 31, further comprising the application managementserver.